Access to clean water is one of the grand challenges for engineering. Mercury and its compounds are among major aqueous contaminants due to their high toxicity and risk to human health. Even a trace amount of mercury intake can lead to acute or chronic damage to human body. Moreover, mercury and its derivatives also cause detrimental effects to ecosystem. Therefore, it is important to develop methods to efficiently and effectively detect their presence in water systems, especially at innocuous levels. Many other contaminants present challenges to access to clean water.
In general, FET-based biosensors are devices that respond to changes in its' biological environment and converts this response into a signal that can be read. FET-based biosensors have been used to detect biomolecules, such as DNA and single-bacterium, and biological conditions, such as pH. The detection of water contaminants in a sample provides valuable information for research and commercial applications, such as monitoring of environmental contamination or water supply systems.